Chapter XXVI

Master Chief and Red Squad had arrived at the Lockout Fortress and found Church and Tucker in containment cells. The Rhinoceros had defeated the Lekgolo and O'Malley's men had extracted him from Headlong. The escort forces would arrive at the fortress and, unless the Chief got Red Squad out of there, they would be trapped . . .

"Excellent work, Caboose," the Chief said.

He looked at the two cells before him. One held a soldier in cobalt armor, the other one in teal; Private Church and Private Tucker.

"Doc, can you get them out?"

"Yes, it'll only take a few seconds . . ." Doc tapped several buttons on the panels that operated each cell. The green liquid keeping them unconscious was slowly drained and the soldiers were awakened. Tucker coughed and spat some sort of green-grey slime out of his throat and stepped out of the cell. Church, being a spirit in a robot body, was able to skip the coughing and get right to the 'stepping out' part.

"Whoa . . . what the fuck?" Private Church looked around. Apparently his ghostly self was unconscious and his robot body was deactivated during his time inside the cell since he acted as though he had been incapacitated. "Where the hell am I?"

"Don't you mean 'where the hell are we?" asked Private Tucker.

"No, because I could care less where you are." Church looked away from Tucker and seemed to notice the other three soldiers for the first time. "Who the hell are you supposed to be?"

"I am the Master Chief. This is Private Michael J. Caboose and this is Medical Officer Dufresne. We are Red Army operatives and require information from you."

"Doc and Caboose aren't Red Army operatives, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Private Church, if you want to live to possibly escape this facility, I strongly suggest you answer my questions. You are the only two soldiers from the Blue outpost at Blood Gulch who may have information we need. Caboose was outside of your base when O'Malley was there, Andy was being used by the Red Squad's Sergeant to translate a recording and Dufresne was busy delivering Tucker's baby. You two are the only ones who had actual contact with him, correct?"

"Tucker was not pregnant! That doesn't even make any sense! Anyway, I was the only one who talked to O'Malley."

"According to Caboose, O'Malley only agreed to allow Doc to help Tucker in return for something, but he didn't tell you what it was until you agreed to his terms. What exactly was the object that he wanted?"

"He wanted me to put all of the Blue Army biological research on a disc. I was trying to burn the information to a CD, but I accidentally made two. I kept the second one with me."

Church reached into one of the ammo pouches on his waist and pulled out a small disc no bigger than his thumb. Master Chief swiped it from his hand and placed it in one of the small terminals in his helmet.

"Hmm, let's see . . . bombs filled with gasses . . . night vision contacts . . . field manicure kits . . ."

The Chief reached the last item on the list and froze.

"Organic contact radios?"

"Yeah, since the helmet radios tend to break down a lot Blue scientists tried to develop ones that would be an actual part of the human body."

"That doesn't seem physically possible."

"It wasn't. The radio was too large, and would have needed to take up the entire inside of a human head to work properly. And since people can't work without a brain, it never really caught on."

Master Chief looked at Church in disbelief.

"You are a traitor, not only to the Blue Army, but to the every sentient being in existence."

"Why?"

"Do you know what you gave O'Malley? You gave him a way to create his own body!"

"What? No way, that technology is years off. Where's O'Malley gonna get the stuff to build it anyway?"

"Look around you. This place is one of several secret fortresses he controls across the planet. He also has hundreds of scientists at his disposal. If he's been given enough time, he probably already finished it."

The realization hit Church like a train . . . then he remembered that he didn't care.

"So what? O'Malley gets his own body. That just means he can't steal anyone else's body, right?"

"Right, except now, he can kill whoever he wants whenever he wants because he doesn't need to keep anyone alive in order to control them."

"Oh . . . yeah."

"Well then. Since this is your fault entirely, you and your friend here have one of two options. Option one: you come with us to stop O'Malley from taking over the galaxy. Option two: we leave you here, and O'Malley does what he wants with you when he finds out you escaped."

"It's not all my fault! Tucker deserves some of the blame."

"What?" Tucker sounded almost hurt. "Why do I get blamed?"

"If it wasn't for you getting sick, we would never have to have called O'Malley in the first place."

"Tucker becoming pregnant was a result of circumstances beyond his control," the Chief explained. "Therefore, he is free from any responsibility regarding this matter."

"Thank you."

"He is, however, directly associated with you, Private Church, and thusly receives the same punishment."

"Thanks a lot, asshole."

"Can it, shit-for-brains."

"Church, we aren't going to stay here forever while you two insult each other. Now, I thought I'd let you know that he has captured Tex and is holding her against her will in a cloning and research facility."

"No, one of you assholes killed Tex. We found her at the bottom of our base with a knife in her neck."

"That was an imposter. The real Tex is being held at one of O'Malley's fortresses for reasons you wouldn't understand at this point. Now, my squad and I are leaving. Are you coming with us or are you staying here?"

Church thought about the decisions laid out before him. He could go with the Reds and help them save Tex, or he could stay here and find a way to do it himself. The first option was suicidal by his definition, and since he knew when to keep his head down, the second option presented less danger.

"I'm staying here. I'll find my own way out of this place."

The Chief nodded and turned to Tucker.

"And you?"

"Church won't last five minutes alone. I'm staying here with him."

"Then that settles it. Give my squad and me at least a minute before you exit this room."

"Why?"

"There are explosives set up along the walkways of this facility and we need to disarm them. After we're done, you're free to meander about aimlessly. There are a couple of scientists around, see if you can get them to help."

"Whatever."

"Good luck, Church, Tucker, you're gonna need it."

The Chief, Caboose and Doc exited the room. There were more footsteps, which meant that there were more soldiers with him. After the allotted minute, Tucker and Church stepped out from the room.

"Did you actually buy the 'explosives' thing?" Tucker asked.

"No, but I didn't want to be rude."

"You're scared of that guy."

"He looks like he could kill someone by staring at them."

"True. Well, let's go find those scientists."

Church and Tucker went outside of the green room and turned left onto the catwalk suspended in the air. The snow had picked up and it was hard to see the walkway. The howling winds made it difficult to hear as well. Church and Tucker didn't even notice O'Malley's transport vessel arrive at the facility. They didn't hear the docking officer shout commands to haul the unconscious Rhinoceros into the extra large holding cell. They didn't see two patrolmen throw stun grenades down a hallway at them. The cold was so numbing that the two barely felt the explosions and the subsequent collisions with the wall. Then, they slipped into unconsciousness . . . and didn't feel anything at all.

To Be Continued